Chapter 15: The New Daughter
The blood hit Samantha's tongue like liquid fire, and she gasped against Nancy's wrist. It was nothing like the sweet copper she had imagined, this was something else entirely. This was power distilled into liquid form, rich and ancient and alive, flooding down her throat with a taste that made her entire body clench with need. She drank and drank, her hands gripping Nancy's forearm with desperate strength, her eyes squeezed shut as the world tilted beneath her.
The transformation ripped through her like wildfire.
It started in her stomach, a searing heat that bloomed outward through her veins, making her blood boil and burn as it rewrote itself from the inside out. Samantha cried out against Nancy's wrist, her teeth clenching, but her throat kept working, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of that intoxicating blood. The pain was exquisite, a burning that felt like being unmade and remade all at once, and through it all she heard the coven's voices, distant and approving.
"Drink, daughter." Nancy's voice was a purr, close to her ear. "Drink and become what you were always meant to be."
The heat reached her skin and her flesh crawled with it. She felt her bones shift, felt her ears ache as they began to taper to subtle points, felt her teeth lengthen in her gums as her canines descended. A shudder wracked her body and she finally pulled away, gasping, her transformation complete.
She opened her eyes.
The den had changed. Colors were richer, shadows deeper, every detail sharp and crystalline in a way she had never experienced. She could smell the velvet of the couches, the old wood of the furniture, the lingering perfume of sweat and sex and blood that hung in the air like incense. She could hear the steady rhythm of seven hearts beating around her.
And she could see.
Her hands came up in front of her face, pale now, the freckles across her knuckles standing out like constellations against the gray-tinted skin. She flexed her fingers, watching the subtle movements, feeling the strength coiled in her muscles. Then her tongue ran over her teeth and she felt them, the long sharp canines that had descended past her lower lip.
"Fuck," Samantha breathed, and her voice was different, richer, with a resonance that vibrated through her chest.
Nancy was watching her with those crimson eyes, her smile a razor's edge of satisfaction. "How do you feel, daughter?"
"I feel..." Samantha laughed, a wild, disbelieving sound. "I feel like I could tear this whole house down with my bare hands. Like I could run for a thousand miles. Like I've been asleep my whole life and I just woke up."
"Welcome to the family," Carol said from somewhere behind her. Samantha turned her head, tracking the sound, and there they all were. Carol lounging on the velvet couch with Denise beside her, Jenna perched on the arm of the chair, Emily and Ivy and Rachel clustered together in the corner, all of them watching her with those same glowing crimson eyes, those same knowing smiles.
It should have been terrifying, to be surrounded by predators. Instead, Samantha felt a deep, primal rightness settle into her bones.
"You're one of us now, girl," Denise said, her voice rough and approving. "How's your first hunger feeling?"
Samantha opened her mouth to answer, and something else happened. She felt it in her nostrils first, a scent that cut through everything else. It was faint, carrying down from the world above, and it made her mouth water and her stomach clench with a need she had never known. She turned toward the stairs, her head tilting, unconsciously following the trail.
"Already smelling the prey," Jenna said with a laugh. "She's going to fit in just fine."
"Samantha." Nancy's voice cut through the haze, commanding and warm. Samantha forced herself to look away from the stairs, to focus on the woman who had given her this gift. Nancy had risen from her seat and was approaching her, moving with that predatory grace that Samantha had admired from the shadows for so long.
Nancy stopped in front of her, close enough that Samantha could feel the cool aura of her body, could see the fine details of her pale skin, the crimson darkness of her eyes.
"Kneel," Nancy said softly, and it wasn't a request.
Samantha knelt. It was instinct, old and deep, a response to the authority in Nancy's voice. She tilted her head back, looking up at her maker, and felt a thrill run through her at the possessive hunger in Nancy's gaze.
"I have watched you for weeks," Nancy said, reaching down to cup Samantha's jaw. "I felt your eyes on us, felt your longing. You came to us with your heart open and your throat bared, and you offered yourself without reservation. That kind of devotion deserves reward."
Nancy leaned down and kissed her.
It was not a gentle kiss. It was an invasion, a claiming, Nancy's tongue sliding into Samantha's mouth along with a taste that made her gasp. And through that kiss, Samantha felt it, a bond snapping into place like a chain of iron, connecting her to Nancy and through her to every other vampire in the room. She could feel them now, a web of heat and hunger and love, each of them tied to each other in a tapestry she was now a part of.
Nancy pulled back, and Samantha's lips followed hers for a moment before she caught herself. She was breathing heavily, though she didn't need to. Her eyes were wide.
"I can feel them," she whispered. "I can feel everyone."
"Yes." Nancy's smile was deep and satisfied. "You are bound to us now, daughter. You are part of the coven, part of the family. You will never be alone again."
Samantha's lips curled, and her new fangs slipped out, gleaming in the low light. Her first smile as a vampire was wide and hungry and full of joy.
"Fuck," she said again, and then she laughed, the sound filling the den. "I've never felt so alive."
Nancy gripped her jaw and tilted her head back further, exposing her throat. For a moment, Samantha's heart, her new and powerful heart, raced with anticipation, wondering if Nancy would bite her again. Instead, Nancy pressed a single kiss to the spot where her pulse beat, then released her.
"Tonight, you will learn to hunt," Nancy said. "We will take the new daughter out and show her the joys of the feed."
The other vampires stirred, a ripple of anticipation passing through them.
"I want to do it alone," Samantha said, and then blinked, surprised at her own boldness. But her new instincts told her to push, to show her strength. "At least the first one. I've been watching you all for weeks. I know how it works."
Nancy's eyes gleamed, and the pleasure in her face made Samantha's chest swell. "I look forward to seeing what you can do," she said, and stepped back, gesturing toward the stairs.
The night called to her, all that scent of blood and life waiting in the world above. Samantha rose from her knees and turned toward the stairs, toward her first hunt, with her coven gathered behind her, a family of predators ready to welcome her home.